hey, i would like to share with you about my passion for the Old Testament (OT). my students call me 'rabbi' or 'reb' for short.
the reb's passion in life (apart from God and wife and family) is the OT.
the reb used to teach the OT in a seminary. he also does a lot of weekend teaching and preaching in churches. and he writes and authored 9 books...
email: aloke6@gmail.com

Thursday, 18 August 2016

If digital technology poses any threat to the market for words printed on real paper—and the jury is still out on that one—then it must also be credited for exposing us to texts from the ancient world.

Last fall we posted about how the Israel Museum digitized the Dead Sea Scrolls, nearly 1,000 texts found on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in 1946. They are the earliest known surviving manuscripts from what is called the Hebrew Bible. Digitizing the texts—most were on parchment but some were written on bronze or papyrus—allows viewers to zoom in to examine the writing and even the paper fibers of hundreds of fragments.

Sunday, 14 August 2016

There are some Christians who go on the internet and read some cranky stuff and then come to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is feminine...and thereby also conclude that God is feminine or there is a version of a Mother God et cetera...

The conclusion is quickly reached because they are told that since the Hebrew word (ruach) for spirit is feminine, the Holy Spirit is therefore feminine. In Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is commonly understood as masculine since the Third Person of the Trinity is always referred to as 'He'.

In the Hebrew language, there is no third category of neuter like in Greek. Hence, everything is classified as either masculine or feminine. The word 'spirit' is ruah and is classified as feminine.

But you will see that these categorizations are often arbitrary since there are only two choices to pick from. For example, is a star (kokab) masculine or feminine? In Hebrew, a star is masculine. A people (`am) is also masculine but a city (`ir) is feminine. A book or scroll (sefer) is masculine but the heart (leb) is also masculine. The law (torah) is surprisingly feminine although a statute (hoq, another word for law) is masculine. So, the rule is that we don't press the 'male-female' distinctions too greatly in Hebrew. This is because it is often difficult to know what is the criterion to determine whether something is masculine or feminine

In the Greek language, there is a third category introduced which is neuter. This third category allows more flexibility compared with the Hebrew. Hence, we find the Greek word for spirit is pneuma and it is not feminine but a neuter noun! As a neuter noun, it will be an 'it'.

So, to respond to those who thus claim that the Holy Spirit is feminine because ruach is feminine and thereby generate other crazy ideas like God is Mother God...let me say 3 things:

1] From long tradition and Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is always accepted and understood as a 'He' alongside God the Father and of the Son, Jesus.

2] Even though ruach is feminine, in Greek pneuma is neuter. In the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit is referred to by Jesus, the verb used alongside the neuter noun is not a 'it' which we would expect but a 'He'. Thus, we read in John 16:13, the 'spirit of truth' is called a 'He' even though the 'holy spirit' is a neuter noun.

3] Like ruah (spirit) which is feminine, the word nepesh (soul) is also feminine in Hebrew. But that doesn't mean all of us are feminine because our souls are feminine! One has to be consistent. If nepesh is feminine and nepesh is often used to describe the person ('a living soul' Genesis 2:7), then we must be all feminine! But that is an illogical deduction, and so is claiming that the Holy Spirit is feminine.